Saturday, August 6, 2011

Is a film production company acting responsibly against an alleged hacker or unfairly harassing and bullying an innocent movie fan? That is the question that has yet to be resolved in the case of Daiana Santia, a 24-year-old Argentinian fan of the "Twilight" movie series.

On Monday, Summit Entertainment filed a lawsuit that accused Santia of illegally downloading and distributing via social networks several images from the yet-to-be released installment of the "Twilight" series. Santia subsequently called a news conference on Thursday (as you can see in the video below) where she denied allegations that she hacked into Summit's servers. "I couldn't do it again even if I wanted to. You enter by navigating, entering by different links. I only saw it, I didn't distribute it like they say," said Santia.

The attorney for the 24-year-old economics student also alleged that Summit tried to confiscate her computer "in a bad manner."

Summit issued a press release hours after Santia spoke to reporters from her hometown of Posadas. The company denied "bullying" her and instead insisted that "it is about stolen material that is private and sensitive which was obtained by illegally accessing private/secure servers as well as personal email accounts."

Several actors from the highly-profitable "Twilight" films have spoken out on the issue and unsuprisingly haven't bit the hand that's fed them:

(Robert) Pattinson and the other Twilight stars have expressed their annoyance at the leak, with R-Patz telling MTV: 'I want the Twilight troops to mobilise, all the good fans, and find out who these little sh**s are and just hack into their computers and destroy them. ... I'm being genuinely serious.'

It remains to be seen if Summit releases other names in their lawsuit. In short, a dramatic situation could get very ugly very soon.

* Cuba: The country’s top court upheld the prison sentence against Alan Gross, a U.S. contractor accused of illegally selling communications equipment in Cuba.

* Latin America: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to begin his official visit of four Latin American states with a stop in Brazil tomorrow.

* Caribbean: At least four people were killed on the island of Hispaniola as a result of Tropical Storm Emily.

* Venezuela: Over 2000 inmates were freed in an attempt to relive overcrowding in Venezuelan prisons.

Image – AP via BBC News (Supporters of Alan Gross, seen here in a photo with his wife before being detained in Cuba, claim that his imprisonment is unjust and an example of the government’s poor human rights record).Online Sources- Reuters, TVNZ, Montreal Gazette, New York Times

Last week we briefly examined the difficulties faced by people with disabilities (PWD) in Latin America. We noted that "some progress" has been made in the region in order to promote the rights of PWD and help grant them much deserved social and economic equality.

Mexico City's ubiquitous green-colored VW Beatle taxis have been gradually phased out in recent years in favor of more modern, environmentally-friendly vehicles. The changes also included a pilot program of pink-colored women-only taxis that was tested last year.

Despite the positive changes to the taxi system in the megalopolis practically nothing has been done to accommodate PWD. None of the more than 250,000 registered cabs could be considered wheelchair accessible though that changed last month. Heriberto Gómez Pérez became the first Mexico City taxi driver with a fully accessible vehicle, a minivan with a hydraulic wheelchair lift. According to the website for El Universal, Gomez spent over 200,000 pesos (over USD $17,000) in order to modify his vehicle.

"I hope (Mexico City mayor Marcelo) Ebard noitces this and pays attention too a segment of the population...that want to be treated with dignity and well-being with their transportation," said Gomez. Hopefully Gomez' initiative will be example for the integration of accessible taxis not only in Mexico but for other major cities of the world.

* Argentina: In a reverse for President Cristina Fernandez, Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri easily won reelection on Sunday.

* Mexico: The number of Mexicans living in poverty grew in 2010 according to a recently released report while the country’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in June reached its highest point in nearly two years.

* Cuba: Rest in peace Eliseo Alberto; the Cuban-born writer died yesterday while living in exile in Mexico.

* Guatemala: By a 12-1 vote the Supreme Court rejected recently divorced former first lady Sandra Torres’ bid for the presidency.